10-25-01
I
was strolling through the toy section of the local Meyer Store, like a Wal-Mart,
today during lunch looking for stuff that might work for my "G" Scale
layout. When I came across these 4XFours battery powered trucks by New
Bright.
Now I have heard about people using the Stompers trucks and kit bashing them
as a mode of power for some train project. What I liked about this unit is
that it is about 1/3 bigger than the Stompers and has bigger axles.
The question was, is it too big to fit between the rails. A quick stop
at the office supplies section and a nice ruler showed the chassis was 38mm
wide. It would be close but for $4 it would be worth trying.
What do I need for this project? Good question.
 | A 4XFOURS Truck by New Bright.
Should not matter which model it is. I did not look at them closely
but I would imagine that they are all the same except for the body. I
grabbed the top one, a Dodge Durango. |
| A pair of plastic wheels from some old
rolling stock. Maybe some you have left over from replacing them with
metal wheels. |
| A 5/32" drill bit and a drill. |
| A small flat head screw driver. |
| A hack saw or a Dremel with a cut off
disk. |
| Optional: A small scrap of
wood. At least 5 inches long and at least 1 inch wide. For a
axle rim and wheel removing jig. |
| Optional: A little bit of grease
and a small amount of Epoxy. |
| 2 to 3 hours of free time. |
The first thing to do is disassemble the truck. The body of the truck
snaps onto the frame. The mufflers are part of the frame and stick through
the body in the back to hold it on. On the front there is a small tab from
the chassis that sticks through the front bumper where the license plate would
be. It is kind of tough to get off but if you push in the tab in the front
with a small flat head screw driver you will be able to get the front part of
the body to tilt up. 
You
then slide the body backwards off of the muffler tabs. The Push Bar is
just slid onto the chassis into a pair of groves. All you have to do is
pull straight up on the Push Bar and it will come off. The rubber tires
come off easily, you just slowly work them off of the chrome rims. Lastly
you remove the battery cover and then the bottom half of the chassis housing
comes off by lifting up on the clips that hold it all the way around. It's
not apparent at first but there are 6 clips holding the chassis together.
Once
it is all apart this is what you have.
The front axle has already been taken out of the chassis. The axles
just lift out. The rubber tires will make great tractor tires to lay
outside a barn and the other pieces will probably just be trash.
The next step is to remove the chrome rims from the axles. You need to
be careful with this process so that you don't damage the gears on the axle or
move the location of the gear that is pressed onto the axle. I lifted the
axle from its location, then gripping the chrome rims, one in each hand, I
pulled in opposite directions. One of the rims came off in each instance
doing this. (Note: Be
careful when you remove the rims that you don't let the outer gear on the axle
just fly off. The outer gear is loose and slides easily on the axle.)
To
remove the other remaining rim I made a quick jig from a scrap of pine
wood. I cut a slot in the wood just a little wider than the width of the
axle. Then I slid the axle into the jig with the rim facing up. I took a
2" 6d Finish Nail, clipped about a 1/2" off the pointed end and used
this as a punch to drive the axle out of the rim with a hammer. It wasn't
difficult to punch the axle down out of the rim. Just take your time and
don't hit it to hard. (Note:
Once again, be careful that you don't move the pressed on gear or lose the outer
loose gear in this process.)
